Dark Knight Megathread

[Undeadfire]

A better point was Terminal Relativity in E12S for 1st/2nd week group clears, Shake/Veil will easily get deathroned by that mechanic, consistent 21-25k x2 AOE attacks every 3 seconds, and a Shockwave Pulsar every 14 seconds which did increased damage every round. Dunno how much damage it outputs on EW stats.

[Lyth]

Let's say that your total HP is 'x'. You have a flat shield that mitigates 0.15x. You also have a 10% damage reduction move lasting 15s.

Case 1:
First, say that you have a single attack that hits for 1.5x.

%DR mitigation = (1.5x)(0.1) = 0.15x

At this point, %DR mitigation = flat mitigation. This is the break even point.

Case 2:
Next, say that there's an attack that hits on average for 0.3x n times.

%DR mitigation: n(0.1)(0.3) = 0.03n

The break even point is when 0.03n = 0.15x, so n = 5. But I could have just figured this out more easily by (n = 1.5x/0.3x).

These two situations are mathematically identical. You could take a single big hit for 150% of your HP, or 5 smaller hits for 30% of your HP, and you end up with equivalent results for mitigation cooldowns. If you have multiple hits, you just add the total damage over the active time of the cooldown. If anything, I much prefer the flat shield because it gives you more control. You're usually running several concurrent %DR effects during big raidwides anyways to keep the damage under control, and %DR loses value when stacked. If you told me that DRK had the option to trade Missionary for a 0.15x partywide flat shield without the healing buff, I'd still take it in a heartbeat. Easy upgrade. And that's setting aside the fact that you can easily boost Shake up to 0.19x on demand with minimal cost to yourself.

[Archwizard]

As long as the rework to Living Dead isn't simply a number change like:

• A heal requirement reduction or healing received buff (which would be counterproductive as it would shorten the invuln time)
• A max duration extension (which would be only marginally useful)
• A cooldown reduction (which would just amplify anxiety as a result of having the same effect occur more often)
• Or some combination of the above

... I'll be happy with basically any change to it.

Preferably a complete mechanical rework that does away with Walking Dead's healer dependence entirely.

I just want to see it become something I don't have to coordinate in a pug or roulette group, and with minimal stress on healers -- especially if DRK's sustain doesn't shift much otherwise.

[LoadedVirus]

Soul Eater: Cure Potency 300 -> 400 (brings it in line with Gunbreaker)

Blood Weapon: Restores 100% base MP

Living Dead: Remove the healing requirement (yeah just worse Holmgang)

Abyssal Drain: Cooldown no longer tied to Carve and Spit, Cooldown reduced to 30sec

The Blackest Night: MP cost removed, Dark Arts removed

Oblation: Trait: When The Blackest Night is fully absorbed reduce damage by 10% for 10sec (keep animation ideally)

[Undeadfire]

Soul Eater: Cure Potency 300 -> 400 (brings it in line with Gunbreaker)

Blood Weapon: Restores 100% base MP

Living Dead: Remove the healing requirement (yeah just worse Holmgang)

Abyssal Drain: Cooldown no longer tied to Carve and Spit, Cooldown reduced to 30sec

The Blackest Night: MP cost removed, Dark Arts removed

Oblation: Trait: When The Blackest Night is fully absorbed reduce damage by 10% for 10sec (keep animation ideally)

Drks potencies would have to be tuned down for this level of changes, christ...

And TBN would be broken AF.

[Archwizard]

And TBN would be broken AF.

Which is why I prefer the solution of Oblation giving 10-15% mitigation for the remaining duration of TBN, if it breaks early. Then just a very small duration increase on top of it, to between 8-10 sec.

Though honestly, even if Oblation was limited to applying if TBN was broken in the first 4 sec and Dark Arts had a life drain component, it would probably be on par with the other three on-demands.

[Derio]

Even if Dark Mind only gave a 5% physical damage reduction. That would be better than its current form. Any form of self sustain is welcomed at this point, whether its through oblation or life steal on blood gauge attacks anything is welcome.

As for living dead I fully expect them to simply change it to a knock off version of holmgang.

[Lyth]

I wonder if the solution to improve Oblation's effectiveness is to make it an actual upgrade on TBN, such that damage mitigated in the first 4 seconds or so gets converted to healing up to some hard cap. That would preserve the 'timing' aspect of the other short recast mitigation moves, while giving DRK some skill based self-sustain.

[Ryaduera]

It is extremely incohesive to attach a heal to TBN though. The idea with TBN is that you can use it at full hp so if you have a heal placed on the beginning of TBN you just overheal and achieve very little use . Wouldn't it be better to put healing on a different skill all together? Like putting one on Oblation instead of TBN? I love the idea of healing based on damage taken since WAR heals when doing damage, PLD heals over time, and GNB heals a large chunk with their on demand cooldowns, so healing when taking damage is that bit of flavor DRK could use to keep its identity separate from the rest. I'm just not so sure TBN is where it should be since it could very easily result in overheal and very frequently not even taking full advantage of the healing effect. Usually you want healing after shielding is consumed.

[Lyth]

There's nothing requiring you to use TBN at full health. The shield is based off of total HP, not current HP.

The problem with Oblation is that it doesn't really have a clear niche. Most raidwide mitigation abilities are in the 10% DR range. Reprisal, for example, is 10% partywide DR on a 60s recast, and that's a lvl 22 ability. Most melee DPS jobs have personal shields that are stronger than 10% DR, on shorter recasts (MNK, SAM, and RPR in particular). Based on the animation and the level at which you acquire it, it looks like they designed it originally as an upgrade to TBN, but then decided against it in the last minute in case there was complaints about the upgraded shield not breaking. That's also probably why they opted for %DR instead of another barrier effect.

I don't think that TBN's barrier effect needs an upgrade. The break even point for TBN is around of 90% max HP in comparison to HS and HoC, which is very respectable (There's about a 13% eHP difference). If you wanted to upgrade it, then sustain is the only thing that I would add.

People have been talking about Dread Spikes from FFXI for years. This is one way that you could do it, and it would reward you for knowing when damage is going out.